# Yoder (surname)

Source: https://namelineage.com/surname/yoder/  
Publisher: Name Lineage. Counts from the US Census Bureau; origin and etymology from Wiktionary; bearers from Wikidata. Data updated 2026-11-11.

A surname from German.

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Origin | German |
| Type | not recorded |
| People in the US (2010 Census) | 56,410 |
| US rank (2010) | 598 of 162,253 |
| How often | about 1 in every 5,473 people |
| Change since 2000 | +28% (44,245 in 2000) |
| Pronunciation | /ˈjoʊdɚ/, 2 syllables |
| Variant spellings | none recorded |

## Etymology

The family name is from German Joder, the name of a clan in the Canton of Bern, Switzerland; which is in turn from the given name Theodor, after St Theodorus, an early Christian religious leader in Switzerland.

## Who carries it

Share of people named Yoder in the 2010 US Census by the Census's own race and ethnicity groups. The Census suppresses a share when the count behind it is small.

| Group | Share |
|---|---|
| White (not Hispanic) | 98% |
| Black (not Hispanic) | 0.2% |
| Hispanic or Latino (any race) | 0.9% |
| Asian and Pacific Islander | 0.2% |
| American Indian and Alaska Native | 0.1% |
| Two or more races | 0.7% |

## Where

Wikidata records people named Yoder in the United States.

## People named Yoder

- John Howard Yoder, American theologian and academic (1927–1997)
- Kevin Yoder, American politician
- Alec Yoder, American artistic gymnast

## Similar surnames

Yetter, Yeater.

## How to read these numbers

A Census count is people alive and counted in 2010, not births, and names occurring fewer than 100 times are not published at all. Ethnicity shares are the Census's own categories.